


How You Really Do A College Party

by Sagnessagiel



Series: AUIdeas Calendar Fills 2015 [3]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: AU, Advent Calendar, Discussions of alcohol, Gen, Ghost Hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 12:35:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5417300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sagnessagiel/pseuds/Sagnessagiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt #6 because I missed a few.</p><p>Stephanie is a ghost hunter who stores spirits in wine bottles. Jason is not ready for any of this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How You Really Do A College Party

The store is almost empty at this point. It is really late in the evening, getting close to early morning, and that means that the only people shopping for alcohol are the people who have officially lost control of their lives. Case in point:

Exhibit A: a man standing over by the vodka bottles in a dirty trenchcoat with a knitted hat on his head and a long greying beard on his chin. He does not look to be sober to begin with, which makes a liquor store visit seem like a bad idea, but no one is going to start that argument with him in Gotham. 

Exhibit B: A man in a rumpled suit with stains on his tie standing in the far end of the store and pretending to closely examine the label of an expensive-looking wine bottle on the shelf. He hums at appropriate intervals, but his mind is far away. Nowhere that Stephanie cares to think about, that is for sure. 

Exhibit C: Stephanie Brown herself, standing in the most isolated corner of the store and staring at a shelf of wines that she has no hope of pronouncing, let alone appreciating were she ever to drink them. Her frown is on the verge of becoming permanent, her gaze penetrating towards the indifferent bottles. However, her mind is not on the merits of French versus Italian. Rather, how many she could get away with putting into her basket before the cute guy at the counter decides to start asking questions she does not want to deal with. 

Stephanie hasn't slept in two days now, and she's pretty sure it shows on her. It doesn't matter though, because she has tracked a group of ghosts to a nearby school where they've set up a haunt. That means she can catch them if she can get there before the sun comes up, which means that she can finally go home and sleep for twice as much time. She just has to get a hold of some wine bottles to store the captured spirits in when she finally gets a hold of them. 

This task is usually best left up to Tim, and she usually has him deal with it. For one, he actually drinks alcohol. For another, he knows how to look like buying six bottles of wine in an evening is nothing out of the ordinary. People trust Tim for reasons Stephanie has yet to figure out, because Tim is an evil genius who should never under any circumstances be left unsupervised. He's also at home with a slight cold that could kill him if it isn't properly taken care of. Damn Asplenia. 

The basket that hangs in the crook of her arm is filled with three bottles. Their names are indecipherable and the rest of their labels generic. Tim explained to her once that ghosts stick better to particular kinds, something about the sentiment of the production process or whatever. Stephanie wishes she had listened now. 

She plucks two more bottles that look official and special off the shelf and puts them in her basket. Then she walks with quick pace to the counter where the cute guy eyes her with thinly veiled suspicion. 

“Party at home?” he asks, smiling politely. Stephanie sighs. 

“I wish.”

“So rough night then?” He asks while she loads the bottles onto the counter for him to scan. He does so with methodical movements. 

Stephanie watches the price go up as he works. “That's one way of putting it.”

The guy looks sympathetic then. “You know, there are better ways of dealing with it than this. Pretty sure all of this,” he gestures with a bottle to the others, “will just kill you.”

“I don't drink,” Stephanie replies, and the confusion he shows then is almost funny. He opens his mouth a fraction, probably to ask for an explanation, but then he seems to decide against it. Stephanie is far too tired to try to come up with a plausible lie, so instead she lets the mystery wrap itself in an enigma on its own. 

It lasts for a good fifteen seconds before curiosity gets the better of him. “So what are you doing with them?”

Stephanie weighs the options. It doesn't take long. 

“I'm catching a rampaging group of fraternity ghosts at the local college. The wine helps to keep them confined. Just stick one in there and recork the bottle.”

He looks unsure whether to laugh or worry. “You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I don't get paid to pry.”

Stephanie looks at him seriously. She could just leave it at that, but...

Her partner is out sick tonight, and she has at least three dead fratboys to bottle up and put in her basement before the sun comes up. She can't do so alone, if only because she needs someone to hold the bottles while she hunts. 

She looks the guy up and down. Tall, dark and handsome is a good description. Not to mention that he looks strong. That, and she shouldn't have to worry about him freaking out and running since he's probably seen weirder things working here than three dead idiots could throw at him. An idea is taking root in her mind. 

“I can show you,” she says, and that gets his attention. “What's your name?”

He blinks. Stares at her in complete confusion. “Jason. Why?”

“Tell me Jason,” Stephanie smiles and leans over the counter to get the proper effect. “Have you got nerves of steel? And do you believe in ghosts?”


End file.
